TOPIC: PMP passed in 1st attempt with all Above Target on 25-Jun

Preparation:
My PMP journey has been a long one. I planned to give the exam in August 2021 but because various Unknown risks materliazed then, I had to postpone my studies to 2022. I purchased PM prepcast ( Simulator, premium prepcast & PMFormula ) in 2021. My plan was to read PMBOK 6 and go though the videos,and practice using simulator. I tried reading the PMBOK 6. As it was too dry, I could not move forward much and hence tried watching the prepcast videos. Since the video lessons were structured more like the PMBOK guide with emphasis on ITTOs,it was too monotonous eventhough the background photos were amazing . Actually the pictures were more distracting and it was hard to concentrate. Then I bought RITA book 10th edition and starting reading the chapters one by one starting from Jan 2022. It was really engaging. I realized that I was actually enjoying reading a management book
Since the book doesnt give the contact hours needed, I started watching the prepcast videos and then doing the self assessments for each knowledge areas. I observed that there were a lot of Agile questions/concepts that were not present in RITA 10th edition. So, I read the Agile Practice Guide which was the best work till date from PMI. It was not dry like the PMBOKs. Its really engaging. I suggest that you read the Agile Practice guide first. It will help covering a lot of ground in a quick time. I really started taking tests on the simulator just 3 months before the exam. I completed almost 2200 questions and read each and every answer even if I answered them correctly. I can assure that if you read all the answers to the questions in the sumualtor, there is almost no need to read the PMBOK guides (6&7) again because they have written the answers purely based on these guides. I was getting close to 90% in the Full exams in Simulator which I was taking every Saturday. I scheduled my final exam only after making sure that I passed 4 mock exams with 80 to 90%. May be that was a bad idea.Since there were 3 more weeks for my exams and I has ran out of mock exams , so I started revising the RITA 10th edition as it has been a while since I read the book as I was busy with the simulator. I did all the questons in RITA book. Then tried reading the PMBOK 6 which was kind of Ok this time because of the Simulator answers but could not go beyond Integration chapter. I skimmed through the PMBOK 7th as most of the concepts are an extension to the 6th edition and any new concepts were covered in the answers of Simulator. I really appreciate PM prepcast team for the elaborate answers.
Whenver I am away from the reading materials , especially during lunch and dinner breaks I watched the youtube video "200 AGILE PMP Questions and Answers" by David McLachlan. This way I could resist watching some junk programs , news or movies. It will satisfy your urge to watch something on TV, yet gain knowledge and prepare for the exam .
About PearsonVue Online Proctoring:
I had a lot of exam anxiety ( had sleepless nights ) after reading bad experiences about online proctoring but since there is no test center in my area( nearest center is Munich which is 200 KM) I chose Online proctoring and took the exam from home. It was not that bad. The check-in and exam process was decent enough. All you need to do is practice the mock exams without reading loud. It was difficult in the begining but soon I got adjusted to it. This helped me in the final exam. So, I had literally no contact with the proctor. He/She never chatted or called me. Everything was just automatic.May be I purged the room so neatly there was just the desk, Macbook and a mouse, nothing else in the room. hence no questions from Proctor I guess . Ofcourse I had not mumbled or closed my mouth with my hand , not even once and tried to stay in the video all times. Its not very pleasant but you cant expect more from an online proctoring.Just test your system twice or thrice. It helps when you do it on the exam day.Cater the day / night before the exam just for reading the norms/procedures from PearsonVue. It really helps.

Hard lesson:
During my mock exams, I used to complete the exam just in time which means I had used up more time as the breaks were included. This was a problem for me in the final exam as I could not manage the pace and ended up not answering the last 10 questions. Inspite of that I achieved all ATs because whatever questions I answered I made sure they are correct , after properly reading each question twice and validating the answer by eliminating the wrong choices. This was a problem and I repeated the same during my final exam too.
What would I do differently if I had another chance / TIPS:
1. Reduce the preparation time to just 3 months if its possible. I had only Saturdays (partial ) and Sundays( almost Full ) to prepare as I could not read after work because of eye strain and mental drain after hectic work.
2. Read (Study at slow pace and grasp the concepts) each and every chapter in RITA or some other book of your choice ( Headfirst PMP or Andy Ramdayal whichever you like), immediately do atleast 30 questions in practice mode or exam mode in the simulator. This way the concepts are solidified and you can retain the information for a longer time. RITA was good at Predective concepts especially the Knowledge areas Scope, Schedule and Cost etc.You don't need so many different materials. Just the Rita and prepcast simulator would be enough. I was also tempted to buy udemy and PMI study hall but that is not required.Prepcast simulator is the best.
3. If you cannot visualize some tool or technique thats mentioned in the PMBOOK or RITA, then try to google it and visualize it. Many tools doesnt have pictures in the PMBOK or RITA book. Until you can visualize it, you are not going to remember it.
4. Complete ALL the questions in the Simulator. Read each and every answer eventhough you answered it correctly. Reading them will soidify your concepts and eliminate pure guessing
5. Try NOT to watch News, TV and Movies right after reading some concepts and before the sleep. You should try sleeping thinking about the concepts
6. While answering the scenario based questions Try NOT to apply the situation to your Job, company. It doesnt help most of the time. Just apply the knowledge what PMI thinnks we should apply.
7. Try doing the mock exams every Saturday morning in the same environment as you would give your final exam.
8. Schedule the exam in such a way that the 5th or 6th Saturday should be Final exam. It gives a lot of momentum and remove the exam anxiety. Try not to have a big gap between the mock exams and real final exam.
9. I had spent a lot of time preparing for the formula based questions which did not help a lot. There were very few formula based questions in the real exam.
10. There were more than 10 multiple drag and drop questions which were really long. If there is not enough time, I would suggest that you mark them and move to other questions and if you have time then try to attempt. I wasted a lot of time in these questions. They were really lengthy to read and vague.
11. Dont give too much focus for ITTOs and try to mug them up.It doesnt work and its NOT worth. Just understand the technique. RITA does a good Job here in explaining how we should approach ITTOs.
12. I spent too much time reading the question ( I always read each question twice ) and tried to validate the answers by elimination, just to be 100% sure that I selected the correct answer. This approach eated up all the time even if it made sure that most of the answers were correct.Basically observe your pace during the mock exams as the breaks are included. In the real exam you will have less time than mock exams.
13.Thanks to all the folks who posted here. Their experiences were really helpful. Especially the ones about reading the question loud. I would not have practiced it had I not read the posts here.
14. At times during the exam , you might feel that you are not going to pass the exam. Especially the last 40 minutes were gruelling as I had 60 questions to answer. It was an F1 race both for my heart and mind. I was literally shivering. I then composed myself , took a deep breath and decided to answer as fast as possible. Anyways , just believe that you can do it. Its nice to hear David McLachlan saying it so many times in his videos. I know you can do it ,I believe in you. Thats the mantra.Thanks to him
Finally, the journey has been tough with family commitments but believe me its Totally worth. You will fill a lot of knowledge gaps and radiate with a lot of PM knowledge and ofcourse with the coveted PMP credentials after your name.
I know you can do it ,I believe in you. All the Best!!

Venkata,

Congratulations on passing your exam!

Thank you for sharing your success and very detailed lessons learned. We are glad to hear that our products helped you prepare for and pass your exam.

Good luck in all your future endeavors!